Snooker: Hendry through in comfort zone

STEPHEN HENDRY eased his way into the quarter-finals of the Embassy world championship for the 13th time and with a session to spare at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre last night.

The seven-times world champion defeated Welshman Anthony Davies 13-3, taking the second of three scheduled sessions 7-1 to add to his overnight 6-2 lead. A break of 70 prevented the match being held over until today which could be seriously short of match snooker as the top eight in the world rankings take charge of the championship.

Only world No 1 Mark Williams is in danger of elimination with Anthony Hamilton, 5-3 ahead at the start of play, still two clear at 9-7 by the close. But with John Higgins 8-0 up on Graeme Dott and Stephen Lee leading Quinten Hann 7-1, organisers may be forced to fill in a whole session tonight with an exhibition.

Hendry, though, was never in danger of defeat against the player who knocked him out of the British Open at the start of the season. "It's nice to win easily and give yourself a day off. I haven't been pushed yet but this is where the tough stuff starts," said Hendry who faces Ken Doherty for a place in the semi-finals.

"Ken had a bit of a fright in his last match so he might come out feeling a lot more more relaxed," added Hendry whose other breaks included a 126, 81, 78, 74, 64, 63, 56 and 54.

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Higgins was more than halfway to his seventh successive Embassy world championship quarter-final after just eight of the 25 frames of his second-round match. He took his century tally to six with a 124, 107 and 101.

It was a devastating display of heavy scoring from the world No 4 who who had notched a hat-trick of three-figure breaks beating James Wattana 10-1 in the first round.

Higgins' performance in winning all eight frames in the opening session was his fourth Crucible whitewash and only the fifth in second-round matches on the all-time list.

Of those five, Higgins is now responsible for two, having taken all eight frames off mark King during a second-round match in 1999.

So much was Dott outplayed that in three frames he potted just two reds while the aggregate points total in Higgins' favour was 787-99.

Waiting to play the winner is Welshman Matthew Stevens who was beaten 17-15 by Higgins in an epic semi-final last year. Another heavy defeat loomed as Stephen Lee, the world No 8 took a 7-1 lead over Australia's Hann.

Lee had breaks of 73 and 68 as a total clearance of 136 in frame six which equalled Higgins' highest break so far.

Hann stopped a session whitewash by winning frame three which he finished off with a break of 53.

Williams kept alive his hopes by winning the last frame of the day on the pink after Hamilton, beaten 9-8 by the Welshman in the China Open final last month, had missed a free ball blue when leading by eight.